Magnetic and mechanical effects of Mn substitutions in AlFe 2 B 2

Journal article, 2019

The mechanical and magnetic properties of the newly discovered MAB-phase class of materials based upon AlFe 2 B 2 were investigated. The samples were synthesised from stoichiometric amounts of all constituent elements. X-ray diffraction shows that the main phase is orthorhombic with an elongated b-axis, similar to AlFe 2 B 2 . The low hardness and visual inspection of the samples after deformation indicate that these compounds are deformed via a delamination process. When substituting iron in AlFe 2 B 2 with manganese, the magnetism in the system goes from being ferro- to antiferromagnetic via a disordered ferrimagnetic phase exhibited by AlFeMnB 2 . Density functional theory calculations indicate a weakening of the magnetic interactions among the transitions metal ions as iron is substituted by manganese in AlFe 2 B 2 . The Mn-Mn exchange interactions in AlMn 2 B 2 are found to be very small.